Stakeholders Gather for Sixth Annual Navajo Education Conference

Dr. Miranda HaskieDr. Henry Fowler, an associate professor of mathematics at Navajo Technical University and adjunct faculty at Fielding Graduate University, and Dr. Miranda Haskie, professor of sociology at Diné College and adjunct faculty at Fielding, recently joined some 120 participants of the Sixth Annual Navajo Education Conference held at the Navajo Nation Museum in Window Rock, Ariz.

With COVID-19 protocols in effect, Fowler and Haskie co-facilitated a Navajo cohort of doctoral students at Fielding, a private graduate-level university that has an Indigenous partnership with Navajo Nation. Haskie led the session, “An Intergenerational Journey Preserving the Navajo Language.”

“There have been recent efforts for language revitalization,” says Haskie. “That’s particularly important as we experience a decline in the number of speakers in our heritage language (Diné). On top of that, the majority of people who passed during the pandemic were the Navajo elderly population, and they’re the predominant speakers of our Navajo language.”

Fielding has trained scholars such as Haskie to do research in this area and provides scholarships so students can pursue doctorates in educational leadership and change at the School of Leadership Studies.

The conference was developed so that research could be shared with Navajo educators of all levels. Conference presenters included Navajo graduates of the doctoral program at Fielding. Haskie presented her current research and efforts to preserve the Diné language, which includes a three-week Navajo Language Immersion project at Diné College and a six-year Navajo Oral History Project between the college and Winona State University. The collaboration led to 27 living histories of Navajo elders.

Haskie says conference participants included “Navajo Nation-wide and border schools that serve Navajo students to give them an opportunity to hear about the research we’ve conducted.” She says the research “related to Navajo studies in multiple areas, like Head Start, incorporation of Navajo culture in the curriculum, how Navajo philosophy supports the holistic student and helps them excel academically.”

Haskie's many resources of Navajo language include the Navajo dictionary by Young and Morgan, which her grandfather was instrumental in creating by serving as an interpreter. She has presented her research at colleges and universities across Arizona and is often asked to provide instruction to non-Navajo teachers who may teach at schools with Navajo students.